{"id":611665,"date":"2022-04-06T09:05:14","date_gmt":"2022-04-06T13:05:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/?p=611665"},"modified":"2022-04-06T09:05:14","modified_gmt":"2022-04-06T13:05:14","slug":"barcelona-unlikely-to-pursue-antonio-rudiger-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2022\/04\/06\/barcelona-unlikely-to-pursue-antonio-rudiger-deal\/","title":{"rendered":"Barcelona Unlikely to Pursue Antonio Rudiger Deal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/category\/la-liga\/barcelona\/\" target=\"_self\">Barcelona<\/a> are reportedly unlikely to make an offer to bring <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/category\/premier-league\/chelsea\/\" target=\"_self\">Chelsea<\/a> defender Antonio Rudiger to the Nou Camp this summer, despite having been in contact with the player&#8217;s representatives.<\/p>\n<p>According to transfer expert <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/FabrizioRomano\/status\/1511623997158350853\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Fabrizio Romano<\/a>, the La Liga giants are close to finalising a transfer to bring Andreas Christensen to the club from Stamford Bridge. Additionally, central defender Ronald Araujo will extend his contract with Xavi&#8217;s side, negating any need for the club to sign Rudiger on top of those deals.<\/p>\n<h2>Barcelona Unlikely to Make Official Offer to Antonio Rudiger Despite Talks With Player Representatives<\/h2>\n<h3>Rudiger Had Been Considered a Perfect Option For La Liga Giants<\/h3>\n<p>Where Rudiger will be playing next season remains a mystery, with many onlookers having tipped the Germany international to join Xavi&#8217;s Barcelona rennaissance in the summer.<\/p>\n<p>The 29-year-old will be out of contract at the end of the season, and Chelsea are currently unable to negotiate new deals with any of their first-team players.<\/p>\n<p>Those circumstances made a possible move to Barcelona appear likely at one stage, with the Spanish side incresingly tapping into the free agent market as they continue their rebuild.<\/p>\n<p>Rudiger&#8217;s representatives had been in direct contact with Barcelona, but those discussions are now not considered likely to lead to a transfer taking place at the end of the season.<\/p>\n<h3>Christensen to Join Araujo in Committing to Barcelona<\/h3>\n<p>If the club&#8217;s discussions over signing Andreas Christensen from Chelsea were not at such at advanced stage, perhaps Barcelona would be pursuing their interest in signing Rudiger more fiercely.<\/p>\n<p>However, the official announcement that Christensen will be a Barcelona player next season is now considered a mere formality, with a deal to sign the 25-year-old as a free agent this summer having essentially been concluded already.<\/p>\n<p>23-year-old centre-back Ronald Araujo is also certain to extend his contract with Barcelona, meaning the Uruguay international can expect to play alongside Christensen at the heart of the club&#8217;s defence many times in the coming years.<\/p>\n<p>Araujo is a fans&#8217; favourite at the Nou Camp, and has made 23 appearances in La Liga so far this season.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo <a id=\"btIJg6lKQnxrAfcLLI6Z5g\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1389164074\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'btIJg6lKQnxrAfcLLI6Z5g',sig:'o7P5odfjUsW9Q-mpVedD8XACqHQA7qRq_xAjubjhtaA=',w:'594px',h:'395px',items:'1389164074',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Barcelona are reportedly unlikely to make an offer to bring Chelsea defender Antonio Rudiger to the Nou Camp this summer, despite having been in contact with the player&#8217;s representatives. According to transfer expert Fabrizio Romano, the La Liga giants are close to finalising a transfer to bring Andreas Christensen to the club from Stamford Bridge. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3563,"featured_media":611667,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1365,11,6,3],"tags":[1088,1225,9208,2803],"class_list":["post-611665","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-barcelona","category-chelsea","category-la-liga","category-premier-league","tag-andreas-christensen","tag-antonio-rudiger","tag-ronald-araujo","tag-xavi"],"modified_by":"Alexander Ayling","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611665","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3563"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=611665"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611665\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/611667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=611665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=611665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=611665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}